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Sarkozy calls for unity after UMP win

Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s former president, spoke on French television last night urging unity for France’s centre-right after he narrowly won a leadership election for the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) on Saturday (28 November).

Sarkozy was expected to win the leadership vote by a larger margin than he did, leaving him open to challenges from centre-right rivals for the presidential nomination in 2017. Sarkozy took 64.5% of the vote, compared to the 85% he received in the party leadership vote of 2004. Bruno Le Maire, the former agriculture minister, took 29.18% of the vote.

Alain Juppé, the former prime minister who is expected to challenge Sarkozy for the party’s presidential nomination, said that Sarkozy will need to “appease the very clear tensions – it’s not through internal conflict that things will move forward so he has to take the initiative”.

Sarkozy said in a statement on his Facebook page that the result “is the best response to two years of internal quarrels and divisions”. 58.1% of registered UMP members took part in the vote.

One of the main tasks for Sarkozy will be to raise money. The party is estimated to be €74 million in debt. The French press has reported that Sarkozy also plans to change the party’s name.

Although he said in 2012 that he would retire from political life if defeated in the election, Sarkozy announced a political comeback in September saying that the poor performance of Hollande has left him with no choice.